NYCC: Chozen’s Rap War - Method Man Vs. Bobby Moynihan

Well, their characters are anyway on the new animated FXX series Chozen. Both showed up at New York Comic-Con today along with showrunner Tom Brady and creator-writer Grant Dekernion to debut the pilot episode -- the first time it’s been seen in its entirety by the public ever -- and take part in a Q&A.

The segment got good laughs from the crowd even while it served to set up the basic premise of the show. Moynihan voices the title character, who is a gay white rapper who gets set up by his fellow musician Phantasm (Method Man) to take the fall in a drug (and gun, and hooker) bust. Ten years of prison later, Chozen is back out in the real world but totally ill-equipped to deal with it. He’s also kind of an a$$hole, but all in the service of getting his rap career back on track -- and getting revenge on Phantasm.

Now, that plot description doesn’t hit upon the bawdy and often quite funny humor of the episode, much of which involves drugs, sex, and bathroom functions… and sometimes any combination of the three. There’s no way you could do this stuff in live-action on basic cable.

There were also several musical scenes where Chozen displays his particular brand of rhymes. Sometimes these bits turn into music video style flights of fancy, with an episode highlight coming when a pair of teddy bears come to life and are transformed into Chippendales-style dancers -- who still have teddy bear heads. I think the song here was called something like “Murder Murder Sex Sex,” and it also featured Chozen breaking one of the imaginary teddy’s necks during a key turn of phrase in the song.

“One thing about this character is he’s an ex-con and he doesn’t always do the right thing, but I wanted you to be able to root for him,” said Dekernion of the decision to cast Moynihan in the role. “I always thought Bobby was funny and you would pull for him. Otherwise Chozen would be one-note.”

While Moynihan and Method Man’s characters are at each other’s throats, the pairs seem to love each other in real life. (They also just made a movie together.)

As far as guest voices who will be stopping by this season, we can expect Alan Tudyk (Firefly), Gary Anthony Williams (Uncle Ruckus on The Boondocks), and “probably a few surprises.” Moynihan added that the surprise will be Barack Obama.

Dekernion explained where the name Chozen came from: “Here’s a dude who’s so confident, so arrogant, he came out of the womb and was just like… bam! So somewhere in my head was, ‘Here’s the chosen one.’”

Method Man said that this first episode just shows us the surface level of Phantasm.

“As it goes on you’ll really see where Phantasm is coming from, and it’s not just penis jokes,” he laughed.

Of course, Method Man was the highlight of the panel -- always ready to crack a joke along with Moynihan. But when the audience Q&A kicked in, the craziness intensified as a Trekkie told the actors that he wasn’t a fan of them -- and what could they do to make him change his mind? The pair turned the question around and asked the Trekkie what he could do to make them a fan of his. He wound up doing the worm… and they were kind of impressed.

And then, after Dekernion, Moynihan, and Method did an improvised rap for the crowd, some guy asked Moynihan how many push-ups he can do. His response: “I’m gonna say four.”